U.S. skies to be full of drones

[The Northerner]

The American skies may soon be full of drones after it was disclosed that domestic law enforcement agencies – from the FBI to local police – have been granted permission to deploy the unmanned aircraft.
Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws show that show that more than 50 non-military organizations have asked to fly drone aircraft, many of which can carry cameras and surveillance equipment for spying within the U.S.

The figures from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group pledged to defending Americans from digital snooping by government, showed that major agencies like the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice had been cleared to launch drones.

But more alarmingly, the documents reveal that individual city police forces are also drawing up plans to use the reconnaissance aircraft more regularly associated with top secret missions against terror suspects in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen.

Police chiefs in Miami, Seattle and even North Little Rock – a city in Arkansas of less than 70,000 people – were all cleared by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to launch drones within their jurisdictions.

Read more: http://www.tehrantimes.com/world/97213-us-skies-to-be-full-of-drones-

[Blue_Tires]

1. the cynic in me almost wishes I owned the company that builds those nightmares...

[TheWraith]

2. Tehran Times? You couldn't cite the Weekly World News?

Or is Pravda Today simply not providing enough good propaganda this week?

[Webster Green]

7. WTF does that have to do with anything?

Do you have any doubt that drones will soon be everywhere, or that all the police will want them? This is really getting creepy.

Do you think the source of yet another story about the proliferation of drones is what is important here? Are you actually denying that it is happening?

[FSogol]

8. How do police drones differ from police helicopters?

[obxhead]

10. I can think of a couple of ways just off the top of my head.

First, a drone is far cheaper to operate, therefore more likely to be used.

Second, as a much smaller and quieter unit it would be more likely to go unnoticed flying for an extended period of time above your property.

While this may seem like an advance in security it is ripe with the potential for abuse and further erosion of our rights.

[Bake]

13. I don't think there's an expectation of privacy on your roof.

Now, if the drones can see through the roof, that's another matter.

Bake

[obxhead]

16. How about through your windows

or even in your backyard.

"Seeing" through your roof may be an option in the future as well.

I see this as a very bad idea and a further way to invade our privacy. I have nothing to hide, but that doesn't mean I want them to be able to look.

[2on2u]

26. Won't some company be able to come up with the

"anti-drone"? I can see it now... little drones, big drones, duking it out. Could be quite an entertainment. I do hope the police will be spying on themselves too, it's only fair.

[obxhead]

27. Sure it will.

The elite 1% will be happy to have the full system installed, while the rest of us just have our right to privacy further eliminated.

I for one have my own anti drone device though should they choose to fly one over my property.

btw, welcome to DU.

[2on2u]

31. Well howdy and thank you for the kind greeting.... on another note,

this was posted just 17 hours ago... see if this would suffice to take out some pesky drones... btw, this scares the crap out of me. I think this deserves its own thread, but since I am unable, please send it to GD if you please. This is so much like the choppers in Avatar.... amazing stuff.

ON EDIT TO ADD: I managed to post a thread!!! Please disregard request....

[Bake]

53. You can close the curtains/blinds on the windows.

If it's open to the world, then legally there's no expectation of privacy. Hell, the S.Ct. has ruled that infrared sensors to detect the heat from grow-lights (indoor agriculture) don't violate the unreasonable search rule.

Bake

[bvar22]

24. Gee, I don't know...

...might have something to do with THIS:

"
Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

United States v. Jones, 565 U. S. ____ (2012),
the Supreme Court ruled that a search for Fourth Amendment purposes also occurs when law enforcement trespasses on a person's property for information gathering purposes, even if that person had no reasonable expectation of privacy.

I would consider a drone peeking my windows as a violation of this.

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly people on a "Liberal" Site are so willing to give away their Constitutional Protections,
AND trust the government NOT to abuse it.

I don't just say "NO",
but "HELL NO!!!



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[obxhead]

50. Thanks

You stated the obvious far better than I did.

Apparently our rights are of no concern now that a (D) is in control of things.

[Webster Green]

30. Of course they can see through the roof.

If they choose to include that (existing) technology.

They will be used to spy on us. Bet on it.

[Odin2005]

37. I bet you think they can read your thoughts, too!

[Occulus]

39. Thermal imaging

Google it

(Odin, your posts have become VERY rightwing of late. What's up?)

[Odin2005]

40. How are they right-wing?

disagreement does not = RW.

[obxhead]

49. No, a disagreement does not equal RW.

Standing up for government agencies trashing our rights does however.

[Odin2005]

59. Mocking paranoia is not RW.

I find it mighty narcissistic to think that you are so special and dangerous that the Evil Gummit is out to get you personally.

Yes, they have a lot of data, but it's meaningless without being analyzed, and there is just too much of it. The CIA and DHS are staffed by ordinary human beings, not supermen with superpowers.

Now the TSA, there is a more pressing concern.

[obxhead]

62. So we only need to be concerned about violations of our rights from the TSA.

all the other 3 letter organizations are just out protecting us.

Got it.

[LanternWaste]

61. As is every single technological advance.

"While this may seem like an advance in security it is ripe with the potential for abuse and further erosion of our rights...."


As is every single technological and industrial advance over the past two hundred years.

[obxhead]

63. It's not about the technology.

It's about how they are applied against us.

Just because we have a parabolic mic to here what's said inside the huddle doesn't mean they should be pointed at the living room of our house.

[Webster Green]

12. They're generally smaller & they are remote controlled.

I think the police have too much military weaponry already. These drones could be useful for good purposes as well as bad, but there's a lot of cops who are out of control these days. I don't see much good coming from these things in the hands of cops.

I've been chased by police helicopters in the hills of Humboldt County, so I'm not real crazy about those damn things either. Obviously, they are all simply tools, but they are very threatening to me in the current US trend towards fascism.

[stevenleser]

21. There is nothing inherently military about a remote control aircraft with a camera...

http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/rc-airplane-clubs.html

[Webster Green]

28. True. I said the same thing in the post you replied to.

What's your point?

[Egalitarian Thug]

15. Any comment on the substance of the piece? n/t

[marmar]

23. The story isn't from the Tehran Times, it's from the UK Daily Telegraph.....

....... the Tehran Times just republished it. But I guess it's too hard to read to the end of the story.

[TransitJohn]

42. FROM THE U.K. FUCKING TELEGRAPH!! That's worse!! They knowingly let their pieces get republished by

the Tehran Times!!!!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Pretty soon they'll start to run into each other.

That should be interesting. Lawsuits by people hit by falling drones?

[teddy51]

4. That ought to drive the Air Traffic Controllers mad! n/t

[dembotoz]

5. maybe we should start flying kites

don't know at what altitude this things fly

but i think a few kites would be a good idea.

[KansDem]

19. Maybe balloons?

[DJ13]

6. Life imitates movies?

[fascisthunter]

9. big brother

[HereSince1628]

11. "Dogtown" to be monitored by drones? really? As they say in L'Rock...thad ain't raht!

I would think the proximity of N L'rock to military and civilian airdromes would make flying 'blind' dangerous.

"There MUST be a meth lab in dog town! Find it, or a reasonable facsimile thereof"

[spanone]

14. what a fabulous, unbiased source you've found....

[dionysus]

17. if you don't think that the friendly folks at the Tehran Times aren't looking out for your best

intersts... then i just don't know what to tell you...

[marmar]

22. The story is actually from the Daily Telegraph in the UK, not the Tehran Times.....

...... the Tehran Times just republished it.

[bvar22]

56. Just more "Attack the Messenger".

Its ALL they got.
If ANY of them had bothered to actually read the article,
they would KNOW that the source is The Daily Telegraph, London.

This is the same crowd that was Parading around DU praising that Conservative Ass Wipe, The World Net Daily, just a few weeks ago.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002451396

How FAR we have fallen.



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their Logical Fallacies.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[sad sally]

18. Here's an US media source (which of course we can always believe, for your 90 sarcasms)

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/04/05/the-coming-drone-revolution-what-you-should-know

The Coming Drone Revolution: What You Should Know - April 5, 2012

In a couple years there could be as many as 30,000 drones swooping through American skies doing everything from taking aerial photos, monitoring natural disasters, and maybe even delivering tacos. While drones can certainly help law enforcement and bolster the economy, America needs to think long and hard about the implications of unmanned aircraft use, a panel of experts said at the Brookings Institution Thursday.

(snip)

Kenneth Anderson, a law professor and senior fellow at Brookings, says the government needs to anticipate there will be bumps in the road when drones are eventually implemented. Someone will weaponize them, creeps will use them to spy on their neighbors—but that doesn't mean drones are bad, he says.

"The worst thing we can do is allow the law to be driven by really ugly cases," he says. Peeping tom and stalking laws should be updated now, not after drones are already in the air. "There will be cases—something horrific is going to happen, it'll be drones combined with cyber stalking and someone throws themselves off a roof in despair. If we enacted a criminal set of sanctions in response to this, it'd be a bad approach. We can already anticipate these situations."

(snip)

The cost of flying a surveillance airplane or helicopter is several magnitudes above that of a battery-powered drone. The UAVs can stay aloft for long periods of time, and unlike helicopters, they can't be easily detected. "People behave differently when they know they're under surveillance," says Catherine Crump, of the American Civil Liberties Union. "We are not opposed to the domestic use of drones, but we're concerned that they could become tools of general or pervasive surveillance."

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/04/05/the-coming-drone-revolution-what-you-should-know

[Buns_of_Fire]

32. The taco delivery aspect of this bothers me.

Have you ever been hit on the head by a taco dropped from 5,000 feet?

Well, no, neither have I, but I bet it's not pretty.

[Webster Green]

33. Are you denying the proliferation of drones?

You honestly think this isn't happening?

Jeez. What a pointless bunch of copy & paste.

It's happening. You'll figure it out eventually.

[stevenleser]

20. They have been for the last 50+ years, as has Irans...

A drone is just a remote control plane with a camera attached to it. These have been around for 50+ years globally.


http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/rc-airplane-clubs.html

Iran clubs:

Persian RC Modelers Club
Website/contact: www.persianrc.net
Location: Birjand.

R30
Website/contact: www.r30.ir
Location: Tehran-shiraz.

Soufiyan RC Airport
Website/contact: n/a
Location: 45km after Tabriz to Soufiyan, opposite Melli Park.
Contact: Captain Kamran - [e-mail].

Tehran Hobby
Website/contact: www.tehranhobby.com
Location: 9 Km after Tehran-Qum highway. Torghoz Abad runway. Tehran

Toorgooz RC runway
Website/contact: www.persianrc.net
Location: Persian Gulf High way, Tehran.

[JoePhilly]

38. You're screwing up the panic and outrage machine.

Back in the late 90s, I worked on some of the earliest versions of the "smart phone".

On one hand, people liked the prototypes because as a user, you could not only locate yourself, but you could locate things "near you" ... stores, hospitals, ATMs, so on.

But ... people also wanted to be able to "cloak" ... to disappear. Mainly from their boss or their spouse. And yes, the government.

Unless there was an emergency, and they were hurt and needed help ... then, the wanted the government to be able to locate them, even if they were in the subway.

The reality is that as technology advances, it creates conflicts of this nature.

If a drone could be used to find a kidnapped child quickly after an AMBER ALERT ... its awesome.

If it can track you, after you stop at a known meth lab, your freedom has been invaded.

Drones are not good or evil. Its just a technology.

But we should panic because the government uses them.

Meanwhile, the camera at the ATM just captured a video of you taking a pee in the parking lot outside the local bar. Ooops.

[Major Nikon]

25. I already have a method for dealing with them and the black helicopters which keep circling my home

[lib2DaBone]

29. "Sky Net".... is becoming a reality....

"Mr. Anderson.. we have information that you disagree with the Matrix...."

[zorahopkins]

34. They Are Likely Already Observing Behavior

Even though drones (the flying kind) are not (as far as I know) already in the air over the US, it is very likely that the US Government is monitoring the Internet.

It is very likely that they may be monitoring this post as I am typing it.

They monitor phone calls, and they open up the mail.

They laugh at a so-called "right to privacy".

I love Big Brother.

[Odin2005]

36. I bet they are reading your thoughts, too! OMG!!!

This kind of hysterical nonsense gets in the way of real privacy issues, like the TSA groping. It's takes a lot of narcissism to think that one is special enough to warrant surveillance by the PTB.

[Odin2005]

35. Tehran Times??? LMFAO!!!

Fortunately I have no psychotic tendencies and so I don't have paranoid delusions that I'm so special that the PTB want to watch me. Sadly it won't be long before some mentally ill idiot shoots down a university research drone thinking it's the CIA trying to read his thoughts.

[Webster Green]

45. The source of this particular tid-bit of "news" is irrelevant.

And...it ain't paranoia if they really are out to get you.

There will be drones peering into the windows of Raging Grannies and Code Pink members and pot-heads. I can guarantee it.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

41. Maybe that's the "transparency" Obama was bragging on.

Making "we the people" more transparent to the cops/CIA/FBI/NSA and the corporate bosses. .

[xchrom]

43. This will upset after there's a repuke admin.

The source is UK - not Tehran.

& it's nuts not to be concerned about this much extra surveillance.

[KG]

52. oh, c'mon. be a sensible woodchuck.

if you're not doing anything wrong you've got nothing to worry about.

[usregimechange]

44. Just spotted this a few minutes ago in Missouri

[Odin2005]

46. Looks like a B2.

[unkachuck]

47. the Left needs permission to fly drones too....

....we need to fly squadrons of drones over wall-street, large international corporations and their headquarters, residents of wealthy capitalists, bagger rallies, puke conventions, OWS locations, etc....

....we have to be able to anticipate any further destruction of our civil liberties, environment, and human rights in order to plan a timely and appropriate response....

[Odin2005]

60. +1,000,000,000,000,000,000

[Meiko]

51. Considering

how our police agencies just love their military toys and tactics.....it makes me wonder, how long will it be before the drones are flying around armed? You know..for that pesky demonstration that needs to be broken up.

[MineralMan]

54. Yes, I'm sure the Tehran Times

has deep insights into such things. Thanks for posting, eh...

[bvar22]

57. Please go back and actually READ the article...

...before posting Attacks on the Messenger.

The SOURCE is The Daily Telegraph, London,
not to mention that this story has been carried by most of The Media for a couple of days now.



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[MineralMan]

58. Yes, I know what its original source was.

Odd that the OP didn't use that, instead. Or maybe not so odd. I don't know. And I did read the article, thanks. I always do before posting replied in a thread with a link.

I posted an OP about domestic use of UAVs on GD before I read this.

[lonestarnot]

55. One being deployed on the U.S. Mexican border today.

At least I think I heard that on the TV box. I'm still half asleep.

[Unaccountable]

64. Spam deleted by gkhouston (MIR Team)